The Democratic political sphere is ablaze with anxiety. Many imagine an array of clever legislation and laws to correct present shenanigans and contain the political right. With all the intellectual effort and sincerity, progressives have still hit a wall. And quite a wall indeed. For example, an attempted coup is couched by the right as democracy in action, or worse the documented involvement of Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, is beyond the interest of Congress or the law. Moreover, many believe forces can be reversed by yet another series of hearings, despite a political party steeped in factionalism and yearning for a Christian-Fascist social order, at any cost.
Against this backdrop, what I'll propose today is less about political competition or gridlock, and more about a failed empire that has run its course. First, our decline is embodied in the colonial project of European conquest. Our constitutional framework is copied from Roman and British polity to drive imperial conquest, not to establish liberty or justice. Therefore, for a moment, surrender your belief that America is the beacon of liberty and justice. The colonization and genocide of the indigenous tribes, the enslavement of black people, and discrimination of women and non-binary people should open that door easily.
From this abhorrent history, the crafting of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution severed America from European control; the consent of the governed and freedom from tyranny. And here's where our political fairy-tales take hold and the American empire is codified into a one-sided social contract. We are asking ourselves now to find, in the polity used to colonize and enslave people, the genesis of and justice we will now use to wrestle down Christian-Fascist intent on dictatorship?
The Constitution will not save us. To begin, have you ever read these two documents, critically, from beginning to end? Take a look and you'll see the only substantive phrases about freedom and liberty are in the first paragraph of both documents and the Bill of Rights. This is where the shell games start, that a few vague words insure freedom and not tyranny. Again, critically, the Declaration of Independence does not provide a substantive legal right capable of litigation by any court. Any pundit or legal analyst suggesting otherwise is engaging in cultural propaganda, better known as gas-lighting. It is the political platitudes of the founders & lawyers, to inspire the people to revolt. Sure, many white men were rewarded after the revolution with land, but only after the lives, land, and culture of the indigenous peoples where taken, and enslaved people furnished the skill and labor to create the wealth. The fruits inured to the political and merchant class (the rich) as it does today. Gas prices anyone?
The Constitution, on the other hand, is a social contract, you know. the consent of the governed concept. Here's another shell game. We're reminded, again and again, that our Bill of Rights is not absolute and can be taken from us by the government. However, the power of the government to take rights is absolute, and enforced by the police or the military; the fox guarding the hen house. This substantive structural hierarchy exists in all constitutional democracies, republics, or parliamentary systems. Consider here, would you trust a contract where one party holds absolute power, against your interest? In contract law this is called an "illusory" term and not enforceable, but perfectly acceptable to the founders who gained handsomely from the arrangement with riches. Just like today. Current examples of this are the never-ending benefits given to corporations by Congress, despite the population's preference otherwise. In all areas of your life, the corporate interests are preserved, just as was true in the Roman and British Empires. In other words, progressives and liberals trot out a never-ending array of legal strategies, believing that new legislation will contain the desires of the wealthy to do what it has done for centuries; seize land, extract the resources on the backs of working people and take the lion's share of the wealth for the themselves. This is the legacy we adopted from the Roman Empire, and is the Achilles heel of our faltering empire.
What will we do? First, stop believing with the stroke of the lawmaker's pen, hardened political gangsters will be deterred or reformed. Yes, international gangsters, who conspire with thugs like Putin & other global fascists. Instead, reach back into our history and see, it is the people that fight against the corrupted tyranny of empire. Second, stop believing that the constitution is amendable to our demands; it's not, and current events bear witness again and again, to this fact. No room full of ivory league-educated intellectuals will save us; if so where have they been the last four years? Writing books? Therefore, start believing the sobering truth; we are all we have, we are the revolutionary spirit that has enlarged liberty and justice and will bring about a world based on mutual survival, liberty, and restorative justice for the protection of all peoples. In short, this unprecedented point in history will require revolutionary ideas, not the tired political cliche' of politicians owned by the rich and pundits, lawyers, and experts writing tell-all books.
